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Next to paper, I get asked about laundry more than anything else when it comes to home management.

How do I keep up with it?  How many loads a day/week should I do?  What’s the best way to sort?  Hang stuff?  Fold stuff?

Truth told, no one is immune to the laundry dilemma mainly because every single, solitary day the people in our lives have the nerve to put dirty clothes in a pile laundry basket!

So, several years ago I experimented with doing laundry a variety of ways and came up with Amy’s Golden Rules for Doing the Laundry.  I don’t think it’s that official, but I do swear by it and I’m sharing it with you today.  Now, I’m going to tell you upfront you won’t like it.  I expect that you’ll roll your eyes at me and mutter like, “She’s so unrealistic.  If she only knew what goes on in my house.  Sheesh.  This is a stupid idea.”

And you’d be right to think that because it does sound unrealistic and stupid at first.  But then…

But then you try it for 2 weeks and if you hate it, go back to doing laundry the way you have always done it. Nothing lost. No pain.

So here it is.

Amy’s Golden Rules for Doing Laundry-

Do a load a day. DO NOT have a “laundry” day that takes you five-hours to complete.  Keep it simple with one load each day and have the family put their own pile away.  Throw a load in just before breakfast and dry it in the evening.

Keep ONE  laundry basket in a common area of the house. Don’t have a laundry basket for each family member.  That way it won’t allow you to let it overflow and you will be more apt to do a load a day (Yes, this means getting rid of all the hampers in everyone’s rooms.  Everyone, including toddlers, are capable of bringing their clothes to a common spot if they want them washed).

Number ONE laundry rule:  If the clothes aren’t  in the dirty laundry basket, they don’t get washed.  No exceptions!

Hang  AND fold clothes immediately as you take them out of the dryer.  Don’t move piles of clean laundry to another place to fold them.  This is the number one problem I see in homes…huge piles of either laundry to be folded (now totally wrinkled) or to be put away.

Have a basket to throw all the socks into as they come out of the dryer.  Assign someone in your house the chore of pairing them all up.   You can make this part of your chore chart.  I started paying my kids one dollar for that job when they turned 7.  They still do it!

Purchase one medium basket for each family member in your home.  As you fold clothes, sort into each basket.  Then each person can take their own basket to put their clothes away.  The person pairing the socks can easily put the paired socks into each basket.

With that said, these are some of my favorite laundry ideas and tools to have in your laundry room or area.  Your space will dictate what you can use, but at minimum have a bar to hang things on and 2-3 laundry baskets to put clean clothes in.

This fabulous laundry stations from Ana White. You build it yourself and it uses regular laundry baskets.  Love it!

Rolling laundry sorter with a hanging bar.  Solves both issues, can go anywhere and small footprint.  This one is from Costco.

Simple under mount bar from Martha Stewart

I have this pull down bar in my laundry room.  My laundry room is narrow and there was no place to put a hanging bar until I discovered this piece.  Mine is not in a cupboard like this one, but just mounted in my laundry room.  It’s my favorite thing in there and so useful!

These two types of bins are my personal favorite for folded laundry.  Each person in our family has one for their folded stuff.

Finally, I found this laundry room on the 6 Cents blog.  She does a whole post on her laundry room makeover and I loved it because it showcases how she took a typical laundry space and made it practical, pretty, and functional.  Nothing fancy, but it turned out so cute and you can do the same!